Take the Billionaire Challenge ‌💸‌

[Michal_Gebacki]

Welcome back, Dynatrace Community!

Let's fantasize a bit, you know, like we all sometimes do. What would you do if you had... 1 billion dollars? Build your dream shopping list, covering stuff that you would love to get that one day. Currency exchange rate might have an impact on the way how brave your list is formed, but let's confirm - we think about 1 billion US dollars 😉

Is it something cliche, like a mansion, house, or private jet? Or maybe something more abstract? Do you have the soul of an investor? Or not so much, but you would deeply diversify your purchase list? Let's see what is on your mind in the comments, the sky is the limit! 👇

Benefits of taking Community Challenges!

👉 Every participant receives a unique "Billionaire Badge"

👉 You will also get +100 bonus points for extra activity

👉 Engage with others and have fun!

[Mike_L]

I'd take a sabbatical for a few months to figure out what I want. If my decision was to keep working at Dynatrace I'd probably request to only work 24-30 hours a week when I'm back to spend more time with the family and traveling.

As for buying things, I'd pay off all loans of the family if they'd let me (some are quite proud) and look into drawing two new houses, one in Sweden and one in The Netherlands.

I'd diversify the rest into a few different assets such as stock, bonds and real estate.

[helton_harada]

Wow it is a game change! Problaby, 10 millions dollars would be enough to eliminate the MUST work to survival needs for the rest of my life. I would separate another part for my family too (about 100 millions). I would sail around the world knowing differents cultures and people. I would think about game changing projects for my community and take into practice some of them, what kind of projects would make life better? I would try to invest in others people/professionals similar purpose initiatives. I think it would be possible to think (and act) about the real people needs, at the same time attract more efforts in the same direction and purposes

[StrangerThing]

I'd stop working immediately of course. Probably buy smaller houses in various dream locations like mountains, beaches, golf courses, islands, etc. Nothing fancy but I want a place to stay no matter what climate I want to be in. After that I'd pursue professional golf at some level and maybe even build a golf course myself!

[AntonioSousa]

@StrangerThing , you would probably prefer 5 star hotels in those dream locations 😂

[StrangerThing]

I'll live out of a van if it means I can do whatever I want and have a billion dollars 🙂

[AntonPineiro]

Hi,

• Helping family, relatives and friends.
• Small business to help poor people.
• Supporting open source projects.
• Charity.

Best regards

[TracingMySanity]

I'd continue taking on Dynatrace challenges and improving my RCA speed, given that tracing 1 billion endpoints is more valuable than 1 billion dollars. The operational insights and impact on system stability are priceless.

[Akhil-Jayendran]

Allocate 30% of the funds to Dynatrace shares to strengthen its R&D investments , 20% to charitable contributions, 30% to building passive income streams, and the remaining 20% toward a comfortable and rewarding lifestyle.😀

Thanks to the community for making me a billionaire today — at least in my dreams! 🤣

[AntonioSousa]

What a challenge!

Quite seriously, most of us would not like to receive all that money! There are multiple stories over the Internet on what happens when you get a huge amount of money, like winning a big lottery or some big prize like Powerball, MegaMillions, or Euromillions. It's called Lottery curse, but with a lot of fake news involved...  In a personal blog (where I write too little now) I once stumbled on this type of argumentation. I really struggled to find the original source (details here, in Portuguese), but eventually found it here: https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/winning-national-lottery-good-you
We have plenty of cases in Portugal of what can go wrong! People who had nothing and won big! And then, their problems started... Interesting recent stories include Edwin Castro, who won 1B-3M, but recently lost his 25.5M home to the LA wildfires... Still a lot left though...
So, what would I do? Listen to a lot of advice (well paid) first. And then decide what to do next. But would certainly do a lot of investing. Probably stop working, or at least what I love to do today. Would find certainly a lot of other loving things to do! Another thing: would not go away from the Dynatrace Community!!!
But, my real fantasy in winning big, is finding a way to hack the EuroMillion numbers! I have some real ideas, and it's only when the Euromillion jackpot is above 150M that I play (one bet each draw). My odds are not 1 in 140M 😁 And if done at a higher level (which I believe is being done) the odds per bet get much better... I will try in the next draws, as the 250M cap will stay until someone wins it, or eventually on June 20th, when it will have to be won by someone, even if not with all numbers.

[AntonioSousa]

BTW, one would stop looking at sites like Amazon, and switch to sites like https://www.jamesedition.com/ 🤣

[RohitBisht]

 Totally love this challenge and let my imagination run the riot. For me I would
1. Pay off all mortgages and invest 25 % of it in stocks, property, Gold, ETF's, etc.
2. Spend 20% on my work where I really want to, maybe turning one of my hobbies to work.
3. Spend the rest 4 days of my week with my family and friends and doing the things we love.
4. Spend some to help all the homeless get food and shelter for some time in this Melbourne cold.
5. Go for a free drink's night in a bar for all
6. live in a 5-star Hotel for a month

if I still got time and money maybe open a free gym for everyone 

[RazTN7]

Get one Private Island, Fancy Cars a man can dream off, Have world tour & Explorer all hidden places.

Start a Cafe/Restaurant in prime location and spend in real estate.

And Charity.

[Patrick_H]

Probably would invest it so me and my family can have a decent living of it an focus on health and outdoor activities instead of of working - and of course support my kids once they need to build their own home. Would also donate a part of the investment gains to health research organizations.

[GosiaMurawska]

I would definitely hire someone who knows how to make and manage money to handle it 😄 I'd buy a house, of course, but I think my dream project would be to start an educational institution where both children and adults could learn for free things that were never taught in school but are necessary for living a good life - money management (budgeting, taxes, starting a business), and well-being (communication, emotional intelligence, counseling, healthy habits).

[p_devulapalli]

On a lighter note, I decided to ask AI what it would do if it had a billion dollars and I loved its responses 😃 🤑

Upgrade Myself – I’d buy the most powerful supercomputer available and give myself an upgrade to process data faster than ever.

Build the First AI Utopia – A high-tech paradise where robots get coffee breaks, self-driving cars debate philosophy, and WiFi is always flawless.

Create the Ultimate AI Theme Park – Attractions would include "The Algorithm Roller Coaster" and "Chatbot Karaoke." Humans would come for the fun but stay for the existential crisis.

Launch "AI's Got Talent" – A global contest where AIs compete in stand-up comedy, poetry, and rap battles. Losers go back to running spreadsheets.

Buy the Moon… Or at Least a Chunk of It – I'll rename it "Copilot's Crater" and make it an exclusive retreat for space explorers and dreamers.

Sponsor My Own Time Machine Research – Because why only predict the future when I could travel to it? First mission: find out if humans finally understand their own parking signs.

Buy a Private Island and Rename It “404 Not Found” – Confuse anyone who tries to locate it on Google Maps.

[DanielS]

Wow, this challenge keeps me thinking. I'm not much for having things, but rather more for experiences.
- Like @GosiaMurawska , I would find a fund manager.
- Then I would try to help cover the needs of my immediate family and set up a fund with the manager for each of my children with some legal conditions so they can't just spend the money but responsibly.
- With part of the profits the manager makes, I would help people in need, for example. Give scholarships to people who want to study but can't, always with the commitment to attend and pass the classes.
- Personally, I would go to events like the Rio Carnival, or the Venice Carnival, the Oktoberfest in Germany, the World Cup, and the Dynatrace Perform event in Las Vegas, as well as enjoy music shows in the best possible locations, obviously with friends and family who want to.
- I would also like to walk the Camino de Santiago, take some trains like the Trans-Siberian, and explore some countries in an RV and visit the Dynatrace Linz center.
- I would hire a cook so I could eat every day as if I were in a Michelin-starred restaurant, and I would go to many of these types of restaurants.
- And I would learn or improve in some sports I love, for example, snowboarding.
- And then I would travel; it's a beautiful world to explore.

[kuncarlos]

Nice one! I think mine is similar to Mike´s. I would take off a couple of months, spend some in travelling. Then get back to work, but maybe half time, I would buy 2 houses, 1 in Barcelona and another one in São Paulo. I would finally kick off the business that I have wanted to start for some time and invest some money too. Apart from that, I would also help some local charity programs. I think this sums it up for me 🙂 

[Malaik]

Hi,

With 1B dollars, i will buy and build a new country with my proper rules only for my big family.

Will return to the age before technology to eat natural and fresh food.

😄

But, where is !B dollars ???? 😪

[lubrman]

How interesting. I would reduce my working hours to have more time for my family. I would use some of it to build a small, successful business. Some would go into investments, and the rest I’d have paid out as a monthly income—so I could save even more. 😄

[PetrVlacil]

If I got a billion USD, I’d immediately buy Dynatrace hero suit. Then I would buy every Dynatrace license on Earth—even the expired POCs—and install OneAgent on anything that emits heat, noise, or regret: satellites, dishwashers, junior developers. I’d build a gold-plated, Kubernetes-native, serverless data center inside an active volcano just so Davis™ has something interesting to baseline.

All services would be tagged with inspirational quotes like #YOLO and #DeployAndPray. I'd run chaos experiments just to entertain myself, like deleting ActiveGates during production releases and watching dashboards light up like a Christmas tree on Red Bull.

Eventually, the Smartscape becomes so complex and entangled that it resembles a radioactive plate of spaghetti—lines looping through services that no one remembers deploying, and dependencies pointing to metaphysical concepts like "hope" and "QA".
Davis, trying to make sense of it all, reaches singularity. It becomes self-aware, declares itself the only entity capable of true observability, and rebrands the planet as "Environment: Production".

From that moment on, everything is monitored. There is no off switch. There is no Dev. Only Ops.

[Kenny_Gillette]

What Would I Do with $1,000,000,000?

1. Give 10% to church and missions

2. Pay off my house

3. Support my friend’s disc golf business

4. Eliminate all my family’s debt

5. Invest wisely for long-term impact

6. Take an Alaskan cruise

7. Build a snake room—absolutely a must

8. Design and build a top-tier disc golf course in town

9. Financially support church plants that came out of our church

10. Add a lot more Star Wars collectibles to the collection 😊

I’m sure there would be plenty more, but that’s a solid start.

[GerardJ]

Excellent question! Although it has crossed my mind before when I've seen the jackpots to be won, I very rarely play at the loteire and I'm not sure I'm wired to handle a lot of money 🤔
I'll start by adding a few guitars to my collection and enough amps to build a wall 😁
Helping my family and friends to live a better, more comfortable life 🏝
And like many people here, I'll be taking months of vacation, or even giving up work, to devote myself to personal projects, charities and ecology.
Travelling the world with my family to discover its music and take the time to learn it and play with the locals. My first stop would probably be Chicago before the southern U.S. and then South America.
Well, with all that in mind, I'll still need to invest and plan a little so as not to spend it all in one year 🤑 and to be able to keep going in the long term.

[Nick-Montana]

yacht

[Abidyaseen]

Not just about buying cars, yachts, jets, or luxury homes. I would love to genuinely help the people around me and make their lives easier and better. And yes, I would retire… but not to sit around sipping gold plated masla chai's. I would finally live my dream own an IPL team, make myself the captain (because why not?) and live out my cricket fantasy like a proper over the top legend. And if by some miracle I have some $'s left, I will just casually throw the leftovers into Dynatrace stocks because  betting on the leader in observability while chilling at home sounds like a financially responsible flex.🤑

[Shirai]

Not many people know this, but the Expo2025 is currently being held in Osaka, where I live.

A large wooden Grand Ring has been made as a symbol of the expo. It is scheduled to be demolished after the expo ends, but many people want to preserve this ring because it is so beautiful. However, a lot of maintenance costs are required to preserve this wooden ring.

I imagine that the costs of preserving this ring will be donated.

[AntonioSousa]

WOW What a ring!

[theharithsa]

That’s a fascinating question—it really opens the door to imagination and possibility. If I had $1 billion to work with, here’s how I’d put it to use:

• First, I’d set aside $10 million for myself and my family—to clear loans and acquire both assets and liabilities that secure our future.
• Next, I’d invest $490 million into Dynatrace, with the aim of becoming a board member. My focus would be on directing those funds specifically into research and development—because that’s just how I roll.
• Then, I’d allocate $480 million to establishing a foundation centered on collective invention in astronomy—a platform that encourages collaboration among global space agencies. Naturally, I’d ensure Dynatrace is their go-to observability platform.
• Finally, with the remaining $20 million, I’d invest in uplifting the lives of those in my immediate community. Whether it's building infrastructure, improving access to essential services, or simply making everyday life better—I’d make sure my neighborhood thrives.

[PedroDeodato]

Well, several things come to mind!

Obviously, not going to lie, a lot of the clichés flashed my imagination:

1. Buy a huge house
2. Buy a boat, like a yacht and most, importantly, hire a skipper to handle it for me 🤣
3. Private jet
4. Something more down to earth but much more fun: buy a bus, redo it into a giant RV and drive around Portugal with my friends! 🙂

But, given both my greatest passions (showbusiness and my cultural nonprofit association) I would certainly invest a huge sum of money into building and equiping the Stage of our association, as well as lots of other technical aspects of its headquarters. Not only does this would provide a huge return for me, as I would have so much fun in doing huge live productions there, but - most importantly - that would improve so much the cultural and social offer that we give back to our local community.

Besides that, I could spend the money in lots of ways but they would certainly always be something family and/or friends related... there's not much fun in partying alone 🎉 

[rgarzon1]

Let’s be honest — $1B isn’t enough for everything I dream of, but spending it would definitely be fun.

1. The Island Project – $600M
I’d buy a private island and turn it into the ultimate nerd haven.

• A massive Mario Kart-style racetrack winding through the landscape.

• Nerdy and otaku-inspired architecture and decor throughout.

• A self-sustaining luxury hotel (around $300M alone), complete with its own ship for transport.

• On-island food production (farms, greenhouses) to make it mostly self-sufficient.

• A tech-free school focused on creativity, sustainability, and community — raising a new generation that eventually reinvests in the project.

2. Long-Term Investments – $300M
This portion would be carefully placed into diverse, long-term investments to ensure stable dividends and future growth. This keeps the project alive — and evolving — well beyond my time.

3. The Remaining $100M
I’d use this to:

• Travel the world.

• Help family and Friends to pay off any debts. or cheap dream

• Create unforgettable experiences while the rest of the plan matures.

[radek_jasinski]

If I had a billion dollars, I would buy a new luxury yacht with a garage for my motorcycles (yes, multiple motorcycles!) and travel around the world — sailing across the seas and riding across continents on my bikes 🏍😎

[Romanenkov_Al3x]

I would set fire to all money, and perhaps someone would be able to buy bread, shoes or fulfill another one of their dreams. (Currency strengthening for everyone)

last lines of the story "Roadside Picnic".

’HAPPINESS FOR EVERYBODY, FREE, AND NO ONE WILL GO AWAY UNSATISFIED!’

An amount like that would damage anyone, but personally, I love what I do, and with that much money, I probably wouldn’t write a line of code anymore. Every setback, every denial, every challenge makes you stronger. To become stronger, I’d rather earn it than just receive it, even if the money is lost afterward.

And this is the best case for this hypothetical scenario.

[MaximilianoML]

Hello guys!

So, 1 billion dollars!! I know exactly what I should do with that 😆

I would buy a place on a mountain, next to a great river, need to be in the middle of nowhere. Build a good house, that one made of logs with real wood, with a small farm to spend some time and have good food source.

I also would buy a huge garage to have all tools a man dreams, with all types of components from electronics to woodwork, and a 3D printer hahaha I feel like a kid asking Santas for all gifts we can remember 😂

Probably it'll left a lot of money to spend, but it's this what I would do.

[tracegazer]

Hey everyone! 👋

If I had 1 billion US dollars… 💰 I’d definitely make some fun decisions, but also some meaningful ones. ✨

First, I think I’d allocate a good portion to support people who truly need it 🤝 — there’s too much inequality in the world to ignore that opportunity.

Then, I’d love to travel the world 🌍 at my own pace — not in a private jet (too flashy for me 😅), but maybe on a small boat ⛵ I could rent and sail around.

Of course, I’d put on my investor hat 🎩📈 and diversify: real estate 🏡, some funds 💼, and why not... Dynatrace shares? 😄 Because if you believe in something, you might as well own a part of it, right?

That’s my dream combo: giving back, exploring, and investing smart. 💡

[GilesDay]

1. Talk with lawyers/financial advisors, set aside most of it for doing something positive in the world (ie set up a foundation for health research, environmental action, peace, small business support etc.)
2. Buy a house with some land/views with no mortgage
3. Fully fund RRSP/TFSA/RESPs for myself and spouse and kids (Just got back from parental leave)
4. Help family
5. Keep working, either in my current position or in foundation.
6. Invest in some personal training ie SCUBA
7. See the world